June 11, 2007

Titans execute their battle plan for victory
Cal State Fullerton strings together multiple two-out hits to rout UCLA, 12-2, in super regional opener. Game 2 is tonight.

By Heather Gripp

The Cal State Fullerton baseball team has a practice drill it calls battle station. It is designed to improve the Titans' situational hitting and make them better two-out hitters.

Saturday's opening game of the NCAA super regional against UCLA turned into the ultimate execution of the drill.

Fullerton scored five runs and had seven hits with two outs within the first two innings en route to a 12-2 victory over the Bruins in front of 3,394 at Goodwin Field.

UCLA ace Tyson Brummett, who has thrown seven complete games this season, was out of the game by the fifth inning in an outing that matched the senior right-hander's shortest start of the year.

"The two-out RBIs, those hurt pitchers a lot," Titans third baseman Evan McArthur said. "We've been working a lot at practice as far as battling. We call it battle station, being able to battle pitchers, good pitching until we get something we can handle. We never gave in, we fouled off and gave ourselves a chance to handle something."

Fullerton (37-23) is a win away from advancing to the College World Series for the fourth time in five years, while UCLA (33-27) must earn its first super regional victory tonight to extend the best-of-3 series.

The Bruins and Brummettt (10-6) had beaten the Titans and ace Wes Roemer early in the season, but this time Roemer (11-6) threw a complete game with seven strikeouts and no walks. It was the junior right-hander's third consecutive complete game and he moved into second in program history in career strikeouts.

Brummett threw 100 pitches, but lasted just 4-1/3 innings, allowing nine earned runs, eight hits and four walks with two strikeouts.

"They were pretty patient," Brummett said. "They battled me. They got to me early."

Brummett retired the first two batters of the game before five consecutive batters reached, with RBI singles by Chris Jones and McArthur putting Fullerton up, 3-0. Four straight two-out singles extended the lead to 5-1 in the second, with Jones and John Curtis driving in runs.

McArthur finished 3-for-3 with two walks and a game-high three RBIs.

Curtis had three hits and two RBIs, including a solo home run to lead off the sixth.